Mrs Warren's Profession

Mrs Warren’s Profession By Bernard Shaw ONNECTIONS Shaw Festival CStudy Guide The Shaw Story 2 The Players 3 The Story 4 Who’s Who 5 The Playwright 6 Director’s Notes 7 Designer’s Notes 8 Production History 9-10 World of the Play 11-17 Did You Know? 18 Say What? 19 Sources 20 Activities 21-37 Response Sheet 38 ONNECTIONS ShawC Festival Study Guide THE SHAW STORY MANDATE The Shaw Festival is the only theatre in the world which exclusively focuses on plays by Bernard Shaw and his contemporaries, including plays written during or about the period of Shaw’s lifetime (1856 – 1950). The Shaw Festival’s mandate also includes: • Uncovered Gems – digging up undiscovered theatrical treasures, or plays which were considered major works when they were written but which have since been unjustly neglected • American Classics – we continue to celebrate the best of American theatre • Musicals – rarely-performed musicals from the period of our mandate are rediscov- ered and returned to the stage WHAT MAKES THE • Canadian Work – to allow us to hear and promote our own stories, our own points SHAW SPECIAL of view about the mandate period. MEET THE COMPANY - OUR ENSEMBLE • Our Actors: All Shaw performers contribute to the sense of ensemble, much like the players in an orchestra. Often, smaller parts are played by actors who are leading performers in their own right, but in our “orchestra,” they support the central ac- tion helping to create a density of experiences that are both subtle and informative. • Our Designers: Every production that graces the Shaw Festival stages is built “from scratch,” from an original design. Professional designers lead teams who collaborate with each production’s director to create sets, costumes, and lighting designs that complement the play’s text. • Our Music: Music played an important role in Bernard Shaw’s life – in fact, he wrote music criticism for several years under the pseudonym Corno di Bassetto. Just as the reach of musical theatre is vast and manifold, so is the Shaw’s approach - pre- senting Brecht, Weill, Rodgers and Hart, and everything in between. Festival Theatre • Our Play Development: The Shaw’s play development programme goals include: 1) to develop new adaptations and translations that will tell classic stories in a contempo- rary way; 2) to produce new plays alongside those of Shaw and his contemporaries. GEORGE BERNARD SHAW As Artistic Director Jackie Maxwell says, “We all know the man can talk, but Bernard Shaw is also one of the most prescient, provocative, sparklingly articulate writers in the English language. His words and ideas, expressed in plays that are well-known, Court House Theatre such as this season’s Mrs Warren’s Profession, or in plays that are not so familiar but no less interesting, have extraordinary relevance today. It is a joy to draw attention to those ideas and bring them to life on our stages.” OUR THEATRES The Shaw Festival presents plays in three distinctive theatres. The Festival Theatre with 856 seats is The Shaw’s flagship theatre; the historic Court House where The Shaw first began performing seats 327; and the Royal George Theatre, modeled after an Edwardian opera house, holds 328. THE SHAW’S COAT OF ARMS In 1987, on the occasion of our 25th Anniversary, the Shaw Festival became only the second theatre company in the world to be granted a Coat of Arms by the College of Heralds. A large painted sculpture of our Coat of Arms adorns the lobby of the Festival Theatre. Royal George Theatre 2 ONNECTIONS ShawC Festival Study Guide ONNECTIONS CStudy Guide A practical, hands-on resource for the The Players classroom which contains background (Characters listed in alphabetical order) information for the play, suggested Sir George Crofts…………………………BENEDICT CAMPBELL themes for discus- Frank Gardner……...………….………………ANDREW BUNKER sion, and Ontario curriculum-based Rev Samuel Gardner….…………….……………………...RIC REID activities. Designed by educators and Praed……..………….…………………………….DAVID JANSEN theatre professionals, the activities and Mrs Kitty Warren .…………….…………………….MARY HANEY themes for discussion Vivie Warren…...….………………………….MOYA O’CONNELL are organized in modules that can be used independently or interdependently according to the class level and time availability. Mrs Warren’s Profes- sion is recommended for students in grades The Artistic Team 9 and higher. Director………………………………………...JACKIE MAXWELL This guide was Designer……………………………………………….SUE LEPAGE written and compiled by Rod Christensen, Lighting Designer………………….…………….KEVIN LAMOTTE Joanna Falck and Amanda Tripp. Composer………………………………………......RYAN deSOUZA Additional materials were provided by Tanya Apostolidis, Sue LePage, and Jackie Maxwell. Cover: Moya O’Connell, Synopsis Mary Haney and members of the Mrs Kitty Warren has worked hard to provide for her daughter, but Ensemble. when Vivie learns the truth about her mother’s profession, the stage is Photo by Shin Sugino set for a battle royal between mother and daughter about love, sex, Running Time: 2:20 money and morality. It’s Shaw at his wicked best. — SHAW CLASSIC One intermission Previews July 6 Opens July 18 Closes November 1 3 ONNECTIONS ShawC Festival Study Guide Mrs Warren’s Profession I was a good mother; and W e’ve described this play as a ‘battle royal’ between mother and daughter, the because I ultimate test of a mother-daughter relationship. The stakes are high and the bril- “made my liant onstage battles between these women encompass the struggles of women daughter a and of society that are still resonant today. Money, career, family, survival – Shaw good woman angered critics and censors with the play so much that it was banned from per- formance in England for many years and actors were arrested at its first perform- she turns me ance in New York. What play could elicit such a reaction? As Shaw himself said out as if I about it in a letter to actress Ellen Terry, “It’s much my best play; but it makes my were a leper. blood run cold: I can hardly bear the most appalling bits of it. Ah, when I wrote (Mrs Warren) that, I had some nerve.” Vivie’s mother is a Madam who runs a high-end prostitution ring. While the play ” is not quite as shocking as it may once have been (arrests are unlikely at our production!), for a daughter to find out that her whole way of life and education was made possible because the only way her mother could earn a living was through prostitution would still be difficult to accept. We meet Vivie Warren, newly graduated from university, who is eager to embark on a career in finance. Having been raised mostly in boarding schools, Vivie is determined to find out why her mother is so secretive about her life and her business matters – Vivie doesn’t know the source of her mother’s income, or even the name of her own father. Vivie has made friends with Frank, a young man who lives nearby and who wants to marry her. When Frank’s father, a clergyman, and Mrs Warren meet by surprise, they realize they have met long ago, under very dif- ferent circumstances. Frank’s father tells Mrs Warren that he will not allow his son to marry Vivie, because of Mrs Warren’s shameful past. In the second act, Vivie and her mother have a lively conversation in which Mrs Warren reveals that she took to prostitution in order to escape a life of poverty and drudgery. Mrs Warren (and Shaw) argue that society gives women little choice but to either slave to their death or choose less socially acceptable ways of earning a living. Mrs Warren argues: Why shouldn’t I have done it? The house in Brussels was real high class; a much better place for a woman to be in than the factory where Anne Jane got poisoned. None of our girls were ever treated as I was treated in the scullery of that temperance place, or at the Waterloo bar, or at home. Would you have had me stay in them and become a worn-out old drudge before I was forty? The Story The Story Deeply moved, Vivie accepts her mother’s choices and calls her “stronger than all England.” But this newfound respect is short lived. When Vivie later learns that her mother is still running her very profitable business her shock and refusal to accept this is what leads to a final showdown – theatrical fireworks between mother and daughter. 4 ONNECTIONS ShawC Festival Study Guide The character descriptions below are based on Shaw’s stage directions found in the script for Mrs Warren’s Profession. Sir George Crofts Mrs Warren’s business partner 50 years of age A gentlemanly combi- nation of the most bru- tal types of city man, sporting man, and man about town Mrs Kitty Warren Vivie Warren’s mother Vivie Warren 40 - 50 years of age Mrs Warren’s daughter Seen at first as spoilt, Age 22 domineering, and somewhat An attractive, sensible, vulgar but, eventually re- able, strong, and confi- vealed as a smart if some- dent, highly educated what manipulative mother member of the young and businesswoman English middle-class ? Frank Gardner Rev Gardner’s son Vivie’s romantic interest Rev Samuel Gardner 20-ish Frank Gardner’s father A pleasant, pretty, smartly Over 50 years of age dressed young gentleman A clergyman who clamor- who is cleverly good-for- ously asserts himself as nothing … with agreeably father and clergyman with- disrespectful manners out being able to command respect in either capacity Mr Praed Mrs Warren’s friend Who’s Who Hardly past middle age Mrs Warren’s Profession Warren’s Mrs Something of the artist about him in Unconventionally but carefully dressed Very amiable with considerate manners 5 ONNECTIONS ShawC Festival Study Guide In addition to being an accomplished playwright, The Shaw was also known for being a critic, essayist, vegetarian, campaigner for the simplification of Playwright spelling and reform of the alphabet, feminist, anti -vivisectionist, social activist, and one very out- George Bernard spoken and opinionated character.

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